A Fateful Bond (1)
The demon-beast was utterly stunned.
The sheer absurdity of the situation — a mere human daring to establish dominance over it — was shocking enough, but more than anything, there was that power!
It wasn't the power of a human.
And yet neither was it the ordinary power of a demon.
A high-tier demon.
And no ordinary high-tier one, at that.
Supreme tier! Or perhaps something even beyond that!
The demon-beast, which had been trying to blow the Skeleton King's head apart, panicked and hastily retreated.
For a moment, it was visibly stricken with fear — but only for a moment.
—A human, of all things!
When the demon-beast instead flew into a rage, the Skeleton King raised one eyebrow.
Huh? That should have been the end of it right there.
Was the shout lacking because, unusually, he'd had eyeballs in this time?
Apparently, it had come out with less mana behind it.
Well, drawing up more mana here risks exposing me.
He was standing in front of priests, after all. That was why he'd been deliberately running his power in energy-saving mode.
But under these circumstances, that was a different story.
If the whole area is blanketed in the demonic aura of a high-tier demon-beast…
Sure enough, the corner of the Skeleton King's mouth curled upward.
He raised his mana just a little higher.
If what he'd been using until now was the size of a sesame seed, this was now at least a grain of millet.
And then something astonishing happened.
FLASH!
"!"
A brilliant light burst from the Skeleton King's body — the brightest he had ever manifested.
At the sight of that sacred radiance, the knights and priests doubted their own eyes.
"E-exorcism Holy Arts…?"
Before long the flustered demon-beast lunged at the Skeleton King, but he simply laughed as though it were a joke.
How dare you.
In that instant, meeting the demon-beast's eyes, the Skeleton King's gaze flashed.
Hey. Hand over that magic core and quietly die, will you?
—!!
KRAKOOM!
In that moment when the Skeleton King revealed just a sliver of his true nature, the demon-beast froze solid.
It was a terror that would rend even the soul apart.
Finally, fear took hold, and the demon-beast fled with its tail between its legs.
The holy knights were astounded.
"The demon-beast! It's running away!"
"Don't pursue it too deep! The Saint candidate comes first."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
At the Emperor's command, a few of them set off after the demon-beast. The priests approached the Skeleton King with expressions that were suspicious and, at the same time, disbelieving.
"Why would a demon-beast like that just flee?"
"A Shadow Lich would never run without killing anything…!"
At that, the imperial holy knights shouted as if on the verge of tears.
"Why did the demon-beast run, you ask? Obviously because the Young Prince drove it out! Did you not see that light just now?"
"It was Exorcism Holy Arts, without a doubt!"
"What? Wait a moment! Exorcism Holy Arts require at least a 5th Tier to cast!"
"How could anyone that age wield such an advanced holy art…!"
The priests cried that it was impossible, but the holy knights grew angry instead.
"Then why else would the demon-beast have run away!"
"He is the Saint — naturally God has granted him His power!"
It wasn't granted by God, I stole it, actually. And it wasn't filthy Exorcism Holy Arts either — I just scared it off, actually.
The Skeleton King clicked his tongue in displeasure.
Little brat. I told you to give up your magic core and die, and you just run away.
He had been openly demanding that his opponent end its own life, but now he frowned.
Because there was something he couldn't understand.
What was that light that burst out just now?
The very light the knights had wept over, calling it Exorcism Holy Arts.
That was, without a doubt, divine power.
But this time he hadn't stolen anyone else's divine power. Its force was incomparably greater than anything he'd produced so far, at that.
Where on earth did it come from…
And then it happened.
'!'
The Skeleton King's arm went limp. At the same moment, a staggering realization struck him.
My mana is almost gone…?
Wait, I didn't even cast a spell. What did I do to drain the whole mana tank dry…
But having caught on to something, the Skeleton King's mouth fell wide open.
Don't tell me — this damn body converted my mana into divine power?!
Well, it made sense.
A Saint's body had to be more advantageous against demons than anyone else's. Simply put, it was a trait that turned even an enemy's power — the very thing that threatened it — into the Saint's own strength.
And that was an enormous advantage.
It meant he could use divine power on nothing but mana alone, without groveling to any god.
There was just one problem…
When am I supposed to find the time to gather mana?
As if filling his mana reserves wasn't already hundreds of times harder for this body than for anyone else!
I need to raise my magic tier fast and crush those dog-faced bastards.
Just as the Skeleton King was grinding his teeth,
"What kind of trickery is this brat playing at!"
"!"
The Bishop's voice rang out. Shaking off the holy knights restraining him, he advanced on the Skeleton King.
At the sight, the holy knights sighed.
Their great frustration was that the Bishop happened to be a priest of the Papal faction, and without concrete evidence, they could not bind him directly.
"Bishop, stand down! Do you still not know your own crime!"
The Bishop shot back with a look of nailed-you certainty.
"The ones who don't know are you! I have confirmed it! This brat summoned that very Shadow Lich just now!"
"What? Really?"
The whole gathering stirred at once. But the imperial holy knights were deeply displeased.
"The Young Prince summoned a demon! The Young Prince banished it, you mean!"
The Emperor too regarded the Bishop with an expression of utter disbelief, but the Bishop cried out desperately.
"Your Majesty! I beg you, believe me! This brat is a demon through and through! The light that struck me earlier was magic, and it was this child who raised the demon from the totem! He is unmistakably wielding a demon's power!"
At that display, the Skeleton King smiled.
Well, of course the Bishop found him suspicious. He was the only one who had actually felt the mana behind the rattle strike.
He must have sensed the same mana as when the rattle had struck him, back when the unsealed totem had first come loose.
Unless he were a fool, suspecting the Skeleton King was the obvious next step.
The Bishop's eyes bulged.
"How dare a demon crawl its way into the Holy Empire! What insolence, masquerading as a Saint candidate before His Majesty himself!"
"Bishop."
"I will show you all right now. Yes, you wretch — I will drag out your true form and put you to death by slow dismemberment!"
And so, just as the Bishop seized hold of the Skeleton King and began to invoke holy arts—
PLOP! CLATTER!
"!"
Just as the scuffle began, something fell to the floor.
There was no way the keen-sensed holy knights could have missed the sound.
"That is…!"
It was medicine.
As the small round crimson object dropped, the imperial holy knights moved at once to identify it. After expertly sniffing it and tasting it, their expressions turned ferocious.
"Is this not Divine Poison!"
"!"
Divine Poison — a venom crafted to destroy holy power and the bodies of the clergy. In a word, poison made to kill priests.
What would it mean, then, to be found carrying it within the Holy Empire?
The eyes of the imperial holy knights turned on the Bishop, and they were no longer the same eyes.
"Bishop Berith. Why would a man come to meet the Saint candidate carrying such a thing?"
"Were you attempting to harm the Saint candidate?"
The Bishop laughed it off in flustered panic.
"What nonsense! Why would I ever carry something like that!"
In truth, he had used it. Not himself, of course — his spy had filled a baby bottle with it, intending to kill the Skeleton King.
But I told them the Divine Poison had already been used up! There shouldn't have been a single drop left!
The Bishop found himself instinctively turning to look at the spy he'd planted in the imperial knight order — but the spy, for his part, looked thoroughly bewildered as well.
And the imperial knights were not the sort to simply let the moment pass.
"Bishop. Why are you looking at the imperial knight order?"
"N-no…"
"Surely you don't mean to imply that His Majesty was the one carrying this?"
"…No!"
The Bishop was thrown into disarray.
Damn it! I can't speak carelessly now.
Merely the fact that the imperial house possessed poison made to kill clergy would mean war between the Holy See and the Empire.
Naturally, if the Bishop wanted to survive, he had to shift the blame for all of this onto the imperial house — but there was no way he could say that to the Emperor's own face, of all places!
'You dogs tried to kill the Saint with Divine Poison, didn't you!'
If he put so much as a word wrong here, the Cardinal behind him and his entire house would be dragged down with him.
It was a mess from every angle.
No — before any of that, where had that poison even come from?
Don't tell me.
The Bishop glared at the Skeleton King.
Don't tell me this was that brat too!
And when their eyes met, the Skeleton King's lips curled upward.
Yes. I made it.
The Skeleton King let out a low chuckle. The Bishop had carried three totems.
He had resurrected one into the demon-beast and turned the temple into chaos — and truth be told, there had been a very real reason for doing so.
I needed time to brew the poison, you see.
Divine Poison took as its ingredient a magic core — the thing whose demonic mana was most lethally toxic to priests.
While every eye in the temple was locked on the demon-beast, the Skeleton King had swallowed the magic core of one remaining totem.
And with the other, he had quietly brewed the Divine Poison.
All to walk the Bishop straight into a trap!
And as for a demon — a demon drinking down Divine Poison, the very thing made to kill priests?
Sorry to disappoint, kid. I've drunk enough of that stuff to rot a lake.
Everything after that had been easy.
Once the Bishop grew suspicious, of course he would come to examine him. And once the Bishop got close enough, all he had to do was slip it out as though the man had dropped it himself.
Of course, if the Bishop were such a paragon of virtue that even after being humiliated like that he wouldn't come lunging back, well — nothing to be done there.
He had deliberately even scattered traces of mana to draw the Bishop's attention.
Humans caught in a trap get simpler-minded than you'd think.
Swinging the rattle so that only the Bishop caught the hint of mana. Leaving the trace of that same mana on the totem.
All of it had been planned.
He had never been so sloppy from the start as to let some fool like that sniff out his mana in the first place.
Well, if he hadn't found the totem, I'd have used the magic core in the rattle. A shame I had to save it.
And so the Skeleton King stared right back at the Bishop.
He didn't hide what was behind his eyes.
He didn't pretend to be a suckling babe.
He simply, very slightly, very deliberately, let the corner of his mouth curl up.
But for the Bishop, that alone was more than enough.
That contemptuous smile twisted the Bishop's face into something monstrous.
"What have you done, you cursed little devil-spawn!"
The Bishop grabbed the Skeleton King by the collar.
At the Bishop's sudden outburst, the knights' eyes went wide as they hauled him off.
"What do you think you are doing to a child!"
"A child? Did you just call that thing a child? You call that a child?"
"Bwuh?"
"Your Majesty! This poison was made by that demon brat as well! Can you not see the devil's filth written all over his face! That thing earlier was him summoning his own underling!"
The knights holding the Bishop back let out exasperated, hollow laughs. The Emperor, too, was left utterly speechless.
"So what the Bishop is saying is that this infant here has already resurrected a demon that was dead?"
"Yes!"
"A feat not even the Demon King could manage?"
"Yes!"
"And brewed Divine Poison on the spot?"
"Yes! That is exactly so, Your Majesty!"
Every gaze that turned toward the Bishop had gone strange.
Even the priests had begun to look at him as though he were mad.
Does that man even understand what he's saying right now?
The Emperor's expression darkened with displeasure.
"Take him away."
"Y-Your Majesty!"
"I never imagined you'd try to pin it all on an infant with such flimsy excuses. Is that really the sort of thing a Bishop should be saying?"
"N-no, it is not an excuse, it is the truth! That child—!"
But the Bishop could not finish.
The imperial holy knights were already dragging him out by the heels.
"Reckless stewardship of a totem. The resulting endangerment of a Saint candidate and the imperial house. And on top of that, smuggling in Divine Poison. The investigation will be a long one. Though the outcome is plain to see."
"The heresy tribunal the Bishop has so longed for will now convene. We will send word to the Holy See, so you may as well begin selecting his replacement."
The wronged Bishop bit his lip bloody.
Panic had made his mouth run ahead of his mind. And now, however he tried to reframe it, everything would sound like excuse.
But the injustice burned too hot — this much, at least, he had to say.
"Don't be deceived! That thing is a demon! Just let one Exorcism Holy Art be cast… no, any of you will do! Cast it once, and that devil will reveal his true form at once!"
When a demon disguised as an ordinary human was struck with Exorcism Holy Arts, its true form was exposed.
So that was why he was carrying on like this, presumably…
Yeah, no. Nothing's getting revealed.
He hadn't transformed — he had been reborn.
The Skeleton King's angelic eyes curved like a wolf that had just spotted a piglet.
Scream all you wanted — this was a human body. Did he really think an Exorcism Holy Art would turn him back into a demon?
The Skeleton King snickered, everything going precisely to plan.
With this, the tiresome wretch who'd been after his life was finished.
And now they're dragging him off to the Pope or wherever. Know when to shut up, will you? What's with the tongue on this guy?
Had the man never tried to kill him, none of this would have happened to begin with.
As far as anyone could tell, the Bishop was done for. Even if he tried to squirm free, it would be a hard road.
He was, after all, a man who had been provoking the imperial house over the Crown Prince's investiture from the very start. With the Emperor already sour on him, and now charges stacked on top?
Now that the Emperor himself suspected him, the existence of the spy would come to light in no time. Above all, hadn't this whole affair unfolded in the imperial temple, of all places?
With the worst of luck, it would be execution — for attempting to frame the imperial house with this incident.
And with even worse luck, the entire Holy See would be dragged down with him.
Perhaps the Bishop knew it too.
'At the very least, I'll take that Eshua brat to the grave with me!'
House Eshua — the Pope's family's oldest and bitterest enemy. He had to kill that child!
Only then would the Pope, even if he let the Bishop himself die, spare the rest of his house.
And so, as the Bishop traced the holy sigil with his fingers, a savage bloodlust bloomed into the air.
It was an offensive holy art.
At last, from beneath his feet, a golden wolf burst forth.
GRRR!
The golden wolf lunged to tear out the infant Skeleton King's throat.
At the sight, the Skeleton King frowned.
No, seriously? This bastard's summoning an attack-type divine beast with zero warning?
Ugh, and my mana reserves are not exactly overflowing.
Would it kill him if it bit him? A critical wound? No — could he even hold out against it?
And at that very moment—
FWOOSH!
Before the Skeleton King's eyes, a dignified ocean-blue light scattered and bloomed.
CRACK!
As though the wolf's neck had been cleaved from its body by a blade, it flew high into the sky.
At the same instant, knights wreathed in blue appeared around the Skeleton King, as if shielding him. At the very front stood a woman draped in a blue stole.
"Who dares lay a hand on the direct bloodline of Eshua!"
The presence in the room changed entirely. Even the priests visibly flinched.
"Th-the Blue Faith!"
"It's Eshua!"
The Skeleton King blinked.
Apparently, they had come to fetch him home.